This has been a 'topsy turvy' year for the club. We had FOUR speakers cancel an unprecedented number in the whole history of the club. However, on each occasion the club's members rallied round to 'fill the gap'. Frank filled in one spot with a talk on Roman coinage, Michael wrote and acted as questionmaster for two quizzes and Michael filled in with a talk on the Cartwheel coinage. This led to some rearrangement of talks and the loss of the short talks.

In retrospect, there was almost a theme to this year's talks, with three of the ones that did take place being involved with forgeries and counterfeiting. The club's auction went very well and meetings have been enhanced by both the member's displays and the raffle, the latter making a small profit.

External events included the trip to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the skittles evening, both of which were well attended. Reading Coin Club was also represented at the British Museum as part of their 'Money Week'. There have now been in excess of 350 'hits' on the club website, a few of which have resulted in membership enquiries but sadly as yet no new members.

Our membership has very slightly increased this year, from 35 to 36, but this hides the true state of affairs. We have gained 5 new members, but lost 4 previous ones. I have to thank you all for introducing new members to the club. The level of involvement at club meetings is also slightly up, from 19 to 191/2. It is very encouraging to see this sort of level continue, indeed one meeting was attended by 27 members and guests.

Our financial position continues to be strong and our income and expenditure are still more or less in balance.

A very sad event this year, was the death of our secretary and founding member of the club, Mark. We have decided to commemorate Mark by instituting a new shield, which will be presented annually to the member adjudged to have given the best entry on the short talks evening.

Next Season

The Summer Social will be the 'day trip' to London on the 25th July, taking in both a handling session at the British Museum and a trip to the Bank of England Museum. We will be rerunning the skittles evening. I have tentative plans to see if we can arrange a trip to the 'Birmingham Mint', probably as next season's Summer Social.

Thanks

I want to start by thanking our President, Michael for his continuing support during the year, especially when it came to arranging quizzes at 5 minutes notice. I wish to thank both our vice presidents, John for a great deal of help at the meetings and Dave, who helped during the British Museum Open Day.

I want to thank Michael for his work as librarian and Neil as auditor. I want to thank all my fellow committee members, without whom there would be no club. This is especially true now, so soon after Mark's death, which has meant the other members filling in. And I want to say a special word for Tim, who after serving five years on the committee must stand down, in accordance with the club's constitution.

Tim has organised publicity for the club and is the principal minute taker. Of course this isn't his first spell on the committee and he is gradually filling all the available posts. His enthusiasm knows no bounds and in the last year he was heavily involved in the British Museum display, and was also last year's winner of the Michael Broome Trophy for the Annual Display competition. We shall miss him greatly on the committee. Thank you Tim.